Aadhaar made mandatory for online building approval

According to the department circular, the applicants should produce Aadhaar authentication digital signature online while applying for building plans. The entire process has already made online. “From now on building approval orders should have digital signatures of issuing authority,” the circular said.

In an important modification of the process, which would come into effect from October 15, the applicant should pay charges within 15 days from the day of receiving acknowledgement SMS or e-mail.

Although builders welcome the new rules, they demanded to extend the 15-day time to 30 days to pay approval charges. “If an individual lacks money to pay charges in 15 days, he will have to start the process from the beginning. The department should retain the earlier system of giving 30 days and collecting penalty after that,” S Ram Prabhu, vice chairman of Southern Builders’ Association of India, said. The circular also directed local bodies to upgrade the website to enable the applicants to calculate charges and pay online.

Ensuring the uniformity in scrutiny charges among all municipalities and corporations, the scrutiny charges has been fixed at Rs 500. “The website should be modified in a way to accept scrutiny charges online,” directed the circular.